Feb 20, 2011

I haven't made New Year's resolutions in a long time, because usually what happens is that I get all gung ho about a new thing and am totally into it for a while. And then one day, my routine gets disrupted and I can't do the thing, or I just don't feel like it, and then the next day passes by without me having done the thing either, and soon enough three months have gone by when I haven't even *thought* about the thing. "Out of sight, out of mind" is my middle name.

Lots of articles and web sites say that it takes about 30 days to form a habit. That may be true, but it only takes me a split second to fall out of it at any time. It doesn't help much that I am not a very habitual person. I don't keep set hours to get up and go to bed, my work hours are flexible, my leisure activities vary wildly, and I generally do things in fits and spurts. I like it that way, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it - it's just how I work.

The downside is that consistency is not my strong suit. Anything that requires long-term sustained effort (training for a marathon, gardening, losing weight, meditating regularly) works for me for a while ... and then I drop it, because, oooooh, shiny!

Things that work for me usually have an external trigger. I take my meds because the doctor told me that I must. I feed the cats because they look at me expectantly when I come home. I do laundry because the hamper is full. I work out because the classes and personal training sessions are scheduled and paid for (and because I like the teachers, and don't want to disappoint them. And I know I work harder in a class or with a trainer than I would if I were by myself.)

A recent external trigger that has been working really well for me is a game: Health Month. The blurb on the home page says:

Health Month is about taking the SCIENCE of nutrition and behavior change and combining it with the SOCIAL GAMES of the recent social web to help people improve their health habits in a fun and sustainable way. If you can enjoy the process of living healthier, you're much more likely to stick to it.

I'm playing my third month, and am really having fun with it. Here's how it works: you set up rules that you want to follow for the month, like working out at least 3 times a week, or limiting fried foods to once a week, or spending 30 minutes of quality time with yourself or your kids or your partner, or flossing every day. Could be anything, really.

The neat thing is that the rule QUANTIFIES it, which makes your progress measurable. (You can't just say "I want to work out more" or "I want to eat less" - you really have to put numbers around it. No wobbling. I think this is another reason why so many New Year's resolutions fail - because they are too vague.)

The other neat thing is that you get a daily reminder email. This one is tailor-made for me! Helps me keep the rules close enough to my frontal lobe so they won't slip. All the time increments in here really work well for me - daily reminder, weekly goals, month-long game. The weekly goals help with the measuring and to parcel out your efforts evenly, and keeping the game a month short prevents it from seeming endless.

And the other neat thing is that you can play on a team with your friends, and cheer each other on, and help each other out if one of you loses points for not sticking with the rules.

And the other neat thing (can you tell I really like it?) is how it asks you questions about your rules when you set them up (is this something you like doing? how helpful/important do you think it is? how much effort do you think it will require?), and over time, you can look at your chart and see which kinds of rules work better for you. Some people do better with "don't rules" or with rules that require more effort. I know that I fare better with "do rules", and with building in a little bit of slack, so I don't get discouraged. My only 7-day rule is taking my meds, on everything else, I get at least one day off a week.

Sep 05, 2009

Went down into the moon-bright backyard with my iPhone and checked out the stars with Starmap. Oh, so that was Jupiter, not Venus. And what's this constellation called again? Right, Boötes, the Herdsman. And what's this brightish star next to Boötes? Aha, it's called Alphecca, and is part of the Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.

Have I told you lately how much in love I am with my iPhone? Starmap is one of my favorite apps. Check out how cool it is. And that movie doesn't even show one of the most wondrous features - I have the new 3GS iPhone, with a built-in compass. I hold up my iPhone to the night sky, and it shows me the stars right in front of me, exactly what I'm looking at. I turn with my iPhone in hand, and the map turns with me, ever so gracefully.

Aug 12, 2009

I am such a shameless hussy. I just met my new iPhone last weekend, and we're already in bed together. In my defense, it seduced me. On the other hand, it didn't make me do anything I wasn't absolutely ready for.

I've already bought a couple of apps, and installed a few more free ones. Here's what I got so far. Tell me what else I must have.

Jul 24, 2009

Aaaaaah, BlogHer. I started meeting and connecting with people right at the airport yesterday. I was sitting at the gate and looked up from my magazine right at Liz Henry's purple shock of hair. She introduced me to Rick Bucich and Lea Armstrong from Tinyprints.com. We were all standing there talking and texting when Mary came over and said, "Are you bloggers?" So nice to meet another local blogger!

And this is exactly how it goes at BlogHer - people will come to you and introduce themselves and be friendly, and I make a point of doing the same thing. Even if I feel too tired or shy to talk, I'll still have a smile ready. Because for me, it's all about connecting. The panels and sessions are great, but I don't mind if I miss a few. There are three categories of people to meet:

And I had no idea that my employer Motorola was one of the sponsors! I visited their booth in the exhibit hall, and shook hands with Becki the Techie, whose name I recognized from several email exchanges.

Jun 27, 2009

What is a browser? was the question we (Google) asked over 50
passersby of different ages and backgrounds in the Times Square in New
York. Watch the many responses people came up with.

A lot of people answered the "what is a browser?" question saying it was a search engine, or just even, "Google". But you know, unless you work in the techno-world, is that really such a wrong answer? For all your intents and purposes, your browser is how you find things online. If you don't look closely, it is not easily distinguished from a search engine.

Dec 05, 2008

In a memo released today, Obama-Biden Transition Project Co-chair John D. Podesta announced that all policy documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be publicly available for review and discussion on Change.gov.

This means we're inviting the American public to take a seat at the table and engage in a dialogue about these important issues and ideas -- at the same time members of our team review these documents themselves.

Nov 09, 2008

... researchers at France's national school for agricultural and food industry engineering have built this artificial mouth—the first able to handle hard foods—to help them break down the chemistry of flavor.